Freight-car



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(No Model.)

f aw/ll MAX \VE'1`ZLER AND LOUIS VETZLER, OF HURLEY, VISCONSIN.

FREIGHT-CAR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 440,907, dated November18, 1890. Application filed May 17,1890. Serial No. 352,228. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern.-

Be it known that we, MAX XVETZLER and LOUIS VETZLER, of Hurley, in thecounty of Ashland, and in the State of lVisconsin, have invented certainnew and useful Improvements in Freight-Cars; and we do hereby declarethat the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

Our invention relates to refrigerator and similar cars for thetransportation of dressed beef, bunches of bananas, or other bulkyarticles; and the invention consists in certain peculiar and novelfeatures of construction and arrangement, as hereinafter described, andpointed out in the appended claim.

In order that our invention may be fully understood, we will proceed todescribe it with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which-Figure l is a plan view, partially in horizontal section, of afreight-car having its top removed and with certain of our improve`ments applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical section of theupper part of the car. Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal section on theline 3 3 of Fig. 4. Fig. 4 is a transverse vertical section on the line44 of Fig. 3. Figs. 5, (i, 7, 8, and 0 illustrate in detached conditioncertain particular parts of ourimprovements, the section of said Fig. Gbeing on the line G 6 of Fig. 3.

The objects of our invention are to econoinize space inrefrigerator-cars, so as to insure the stowage of the full amount ofgoods which the capacity of the car will admit, and also to facilitateand expedite the operations of loading and unloading the goods,furthermore, to prevent all liability of injury to the goods duringtransportation due to the motion of the cars. These results we attain byvirtue of the construction which we will now proceed to describe.

In the said drawings, A designates the body of a boxear.

Inasmueh as our invention is more especially intended to be used in thetransportation of dressed beef and like commodities, the improvementswhich we are about to describe will be generally applied torefrigerator-cars. However, it will be obvious from the ensuingdescription that our invention may be also effectively applied toordinary box-cars and various other types of freight-cars, as well as inthe transportation of dressed meat.

B B designate a number of cross beams or rafters, which are locateddirectly beneath the roof C of the car, and which preferably extendtransversely thereof, as shown.

D D designate hangers, which are pendent from the rafters B, and whichat their lower ends are formed with U-shaped bearings or sockets d, (seeFig. 6,) whichI receive the rails or tracks E. The hangers D are shownas extending at their upper ends entirely through the rafters B and asscrew-threaded at such points to receive nuts d', which rest upon theupper sides of the rafters, and thus retain the hangers D in theirrequired position. It is obvious, however, that this precise manner of-securing the hangers in pendent position is not exclusively essentialto the spirit of our invention; but such hangers maybe retained inposition in any suitable or preferred manner. These hangers are placedat intervals with their sockets d extending longitudinally of the ear,so that the tracks or .rails E shall extend parallel with each other incorresponding relation to the car-body. There are preferably two similarsets of -these hangers and rails-one set at each end of the car-and therails or tracks E at one end of the ear are in alignment with those atthe opposite end thereof, a gangway or space extending between the setsof tracks transversely of the car from one side door to the other. Byreference to Figs. l, 3, (5, and 8 it will be seen that the sockets d2nearest to the gangway or space just referred to protrude toward thegangway, and that the contiguous ends of the rails E extend onlypartially Within the opposite parts of the said sockets sufficiently tobe effeetivelysupported thereby. The purpose of this arrangement willhereinafter appear.

F F designate raft-ers, which extend longitudinally of the car over thegangway, and the ends of which are secured to the two adjacenttransverse rafters B. Pendent from these rafters F are U -shaped hangersor straps f, (see Fig. 2,) which receive a removable beam G, the ends ofwhich are also supported by U shaped straps or hangers f', secured tothe transoms of the side doors. This arrangement is such that the beam Gcan be readily pushed IOO inward from either side of the car throughhangers f f and likewise be withdrawn when desired. After this beam hasbeen thus put in place any desired number of removable hangers II (seeFigs. 2 and 5) are removably suspended by their inverted-U -shaped upperends h from said beam. The lower ends of these hangers I-I carryU-shaped sockets h to removably sustain a temporary rail or track I, oneend 'L' of which is curved laterally, as is best shown in Fig. l.

The manner of using the appliances thus far described is as follows:When the car is moved into position to receive its load, (supposing thecar to be empty,) it is opened at one side, and the beam G and hangers Hare put in place. The track I is now placed in the sockets h of hangersH, and its curved end is set in one of the sockets d2 farthest from openside of the car. A traveler J is now placed upon the outer end of trackI, and is drawn along said track over its curved portion t' and back tothe farthest end of the permanent track E. This operation is repeated,other similar travelers J being used, until the said track E is filled.The track I is now drawn outward until its curved end rests in the nextsocket cl2, and so on till all the tracks E at that end of the car arelled, and then the track I simply turned over so as to turn its curvedend toward the opposite end of the car. After placing the track in theproper socket cl2 of this set of tracks E the operations above describedare repeated till the car is entirely filled. The beam G, track I, andhangers H are now removed, and the car may be closed fortransport-ation. It is obvious that the operation of unloading the caris simply a reversal of that just described, and lalsolthat suchoperations are much more easily and quickly performed than they could bewithout the use of the appliances described.

In order to prevent any damage to the goods due to violent collisionagainst each other by reason of the rough movements of the car, wepreferably attach at intervals along the sides of the car a number ofeyebolts J. Chains or ropes K are secured at their ends to these boltsand are strained up over the tracks E, so as to extend from side to sideof the car. These chains or ropes confine the several pendent articles,and thus prevent them from striking against each other and so becomingdamaged. Frequently the articles which compose a load in this branch oftransportation are consigned to different parties and various points,and for this and other obvious reasons the contents of the car have tobe moved about, so that access may be had to the particular articlescalled for. In order to adapt the appliances described to thisexigency,we employ removable rails, which serve as temporary switches orbridges which are designed to connect the two sets of tracks E, so thatarticles may be transferred readily from one to the other, as desired.

In Fig. 8 a straight switch or bridge L is shown, and in Figs. l and 9 acurved switch or bridge M is also shown. The ends of these switches areset into the opposite sockets either of the corresponding tracks of thetwo sets or of the varying tracks thereof. Thus the articles can berapidly shifted about, as required, and the changing about of the loadis greatly facilitated.

Having thus described our invention,what we claim as new therein, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination, with a freight-car body, of a number of hangers orstraps secured to the upper part of the roof and door-transoms, a beamset removably in said hangers, and a removable track or way suspended byhangers from said beam, substantially as described.

In testimony that we claim the foregoing we have hereunto set our hands,at Hurley, in the county of Ashland and State of Visconsin, in thepresence of two witnesses.

MAX VETZLER. LOUIS VETZLER. lilitnesses:

R. SLEIGHT, Il. G. REICHWALD.

